owning apple even right here. there's always a bull market somewhere. promise to find it for you. i'm jim cramer. i'll see you monday. good morning and welcome to the show. headlines from around the globe morning, here in the u.s., apple is set to announce their plan to the estimated $98 billion in cash on hand. portuguese finance minister scheduled to meet with bernanke and geithner, but pimco worns the country will be the next greece. and major investors question beijing's next policy moves after a china hard landing despite falling property prices.

good morning, you're watching "worldwide exchange." great to have you with us this morning. let's start by taking a look at the u.s. futures and see how we're poised for trade on wall street. looks like we've taken a little bit of a turn here. tuts were up just a few moments ago, but you now the dow would be lower by 38, the nasdaq lower by 5 and the s&p 500 lower by 5, as well. meantime the dow and s&p posted their biggest weekly gains of the year last week, both markets rose 2.5% during the period boosted by positive retail manufacturing and unemployment numbers out of the u.s. so the big question of course, can this trend continue. meantime, treasury bonds have their biggest weekly sell off since july last week, the two year, ten year yields currently right now looking at the ten year at 2.27, and that is a huge move for the ten year note. joining us to it talk more about the markets is our guest host for the next hour, j. j. burns.

great to have you with us this morning. let's talk about these markets. see something pretty wild swings and receipt big moves. but first let's start with the asset allocate shift we'olocati seeing. >> i think investors are getting lureded if will by the pact that they feel like they're missing out, so they're kind of jumping on board. interestingly, it's probably going to be too much going into equities versus where they really need to be inside their bond portfolio. keep in mind that your high yield area is still an area which is probably gaining somewhere around 70% of the market share of equities. so still really good values to be had. not that i want to be known as the junk bond kenk here, but certainly there's great balance sheets from a fixed income perspective and baby boomers are really still seeing yields of

between 5% and 6%. granted not aaa paper, but still decent yields to be had. >> going back to the government side, do you think some of the shift has to do with the fact that we don't think there's going to be any qe-3 on the table or generally that's the sort of larger opinion at the moment and rates will rise sooner than bernanke said they will, or do you take the other side of some analysts would are saying qe-3 is for the off the table, we could need it in this economy? sdl i . >> i'm definitely in the camp that qe-3 is pnot off the table. we can go back to 2010 and even 2011, we have seen the treasury bond in the first quarter of 2011 as an example here go from 3.6, 3.7, even up to 3.75. and the pun did did i tells were saying that the bull market's over in the bond market, we're going to 4% failed.

we went from 3.75% new the course of 2011 all the way back to closing at nearly 1.87 on the ten year treasury note. it happened also in 2010. i probably would say to you that investors need to take heed of what's going on right now, they're seeing this will bump up in yields. it will probably not continue, not persist. i don't believe that the bull market is over in bonds. there's just way too much uncertainty and way too many problems and this deleveraging process continues to march on which is going to take year, not a couple years. >> j.j., this is christine here in asian. this slight optimism that you're talking about, when will it start to filter through into the job market? >> i think the job market is very, very jagged, christine. i think that the problem that we have is that on the one hand, you've got jobs which are increasing, and then you look at

the u.s. coincident index which really measures very accurately the growth of consumer spending. and although consumer spending has bumped up a little bit, the general trend is down p. so when you take in all these factor, i think that the job market looks like a little bit of a blip. and we get so caught up in the fact that there's this three month trend, we're back on target, but let's get down to the internal numbers. the jobs that were lost are not the exact jobs being replaced. talk to the average guy where the rubber meets the road, the guy making $70,000, $80,000 is not making $70,000, $80,000. he's fortunate on get a job for $40,000 or $50,000, he's fortunate to even have a job. so the jobs being replaced are not the jobs that were lost. furthermore, i think that corporations have a tendency, and this is clear, it's not my thought, that corporations once things happen, they cut, they

completely cut out the expenses which is a large expenses in employment, only to replace them later with jobs that they know they can replace quickly with. so they've cut too much out, they're bumping up, having a few extra jobs coming to the market and i think that we'll feel jagged job recoveries going on. >> sounds like you're pretty cautious overall. what do you think will be the factor which persuades the markets and investors and in a general sense the fact that we are necessarily on this straight line to a recovery story for the u.s. economy? >> that's a great question. i think that when we start seeing the behaviors of our government leaders who really take a accept back and say, you know what, now's the time where we really need on fess up and really get the right plan in place here, you know, i hate to take a page out on of the greek debt problem, but look at what

the prime ministers are dealing with over there. nobody really believes greece because there's really no true fiscal reform. you get compassion from investors when you believe that the child that you had is really going to happen. you don't get compassion and you think it's not wise or what's happening and you don't have belief in the system because you know it's just this proverbial kick the can down the road. and that's pretty much what's happening. >> j.j., let's shift gears because a big event happening today. investors will finally hear what apple plans to do with the $98 billion in cash that the company has accumulated. apple ceo testimony cook and cfo will host a conference call at 9:00 a.m. to discuss plans for the company's cash reserves. analysts speculating they will announce a shareholder dividend or possibly buy back stock. shares are trader hi er higher about 3%. so let's talk about apple.

a big market driver. in terms of the conference call today, do you expect to be a dividend or do you expect a buy back? >> i'm not sure. >> hard to say. >> it's hard to say. i think that there will be some action as far as maybe a special dividend of some nature. >> it would be nice to give some of that money pack to the shareholders. >> it would be, but you know something, i think a that's on the one hand .from a pure investor standpoint, if i did own share, i would probably like for them to keep it. i would like to see them look down the road to say research and development is so key on what's happening. >> especially without steve jobs around. >> good oints. it's just so key to the outlook of what's happening for apple p about also, when apple approaches any company approaches a $500 billion market cap, how much does it take to push the needle?

you take a look at what happened to pfizer, it is so reminisce septembreminisceen for me and i get this bad feeling. it never ever since i think it was around 1998 ever reached that level ever again. >> that it's a great point. >> and i just wonder going down the line what will happen to apple as share prices as far as right now. >> absolutely. and of course j.j. will stay us with and bring us more ofis insight. but still to come, after much speculation, u.p.s. has reached a deal to buy tmt.

it's time for your global markets report. let's take a look at the u.s. futures. does look like it will be a lower open if the markets were to open now, the dow would be lower by nearly 38. the nasdaq by 5 and the s&p 500 by a little bit more than 4. meantime u.s. equities finished flat in a lackluster trading session on friday, but the major averages, they did log a very impressive weekly gains. we saw the dow and s&p log in their best week since december of last year. in terms of the best performers, energy, material and of course the financials.

how does it look in europe? >> similar picture here. of course we've had a strong run up for equities recently, so the moves to the down side today, a little bit of a pause for breath. overall the regional index is done by just about half of 1%. we've had the highest it in about eight months or so for many of these national indexes. today coming off those by the tine of 0.6%. cac down by nearly 0.9%. and ftse by just about half of 1%. so just coming off the highs over the past 8 1/2 months. and we've had a strong run of things. certainly year to date it's been a pot set sitive set of session. euro-dollar trading at 1.3148. shifting down by just about a quarter of a percent against the dollar.

the dollar did fall pretty hard in the last couple of sessions. in fact euro in the last two days had an over-1%, over 4% hire over the past two months. so again, just represents a little bit of a turnaround from what we had in the past couple of sessions. euro-yen currently trading at 109.26. euro lower by about 0.6% against the yen in terms we've seen a yen hitting a five month low against the euro at 1.1015. dollar-yen is at 83.11. and finally sterling-dollar at 1.5835. le holding pretty steady so far today against the dollar. so this is how the bond market is looking. while we have seen pretty dramatic moves, we just spoke to j.j. before about the way we've seen money shifting out into equities. let's look at the yields. again, a bit of a switch around. the bund in germany, that ten year debt is just a fraction over 2%. here in the uk, the gilt ten

year debt at 2.4% roughly. we do of course have the uk budget which takes place will this week. plenty of reporting on that of course later in the steve sedg heading down there. the treasury is at 2.26, moving back below the 2.3% where we finished off friday's session which is actually the highest since the end of october in terms of those gilt yields. and the portugal, 13.7%. we will come back to this issue in a moment about portugal, but we've had el-erian saying he believes portugal will be the next greece. so that's a having an impact today, as well. quick check on the oil markets where we've seen a steady run up in the oil prices recently. but on friday -- well, today oil moving down by half a percent

after very sharp move higher on friday. so, again, just today representing the oil markets, as well, a bit of a switch around for the moves from the up side that we had in friday's session, christine. >> here in asia, a bet of a mixed session. initially stocks got a lift from the u.s. rally. take a look at the nikkei, up 0.1%, but with the index up some 20% this year, investors are afraid of taking some stock market a little bit too high. so a beft caution in the japanese market. elsewhere, gains were capped over in shanghai, we had the property counters again under pressure. data showed that prices continued to fall for the fifth straight month in the month of february. also there's a lot of caution amid concerns of tight domestic monday area policy. elsewhere, chinese financials were really the big focus in the hong kong market being dragged

lower. why? because growth much lower than expected. still holding on to the key 21,000 level elsewhere. australian market up 0.3 and the sensex down 1.1%. so a little bit of lack laws ter trade here and there. that's your overall market wrap report. some of the big stories we're following from around the world today, german magazine has reported that the wing crack problem may be worse than thought. we have stefane looking over the report for us. how ask does it look? >> it will take longer than expected to repair the contacts and cost more than expected. the paper is quoting one of the

officials from the company who admitted it will keep airbus busy for years. so it will take years to repair the cracks, lfr they believe the final cost will be 700 million euro, much higher than the first estimate given a few weeks ago foe by airbus. not only to repair the cracks, but also to change the production process to make sure that the problem won't happen again. so far 67 airbus 380 have been checked for the wing cracks. airbus is working on a problem that claims that their craft is safe to fly calling the problem a minor safety issue. if you look at the market creation, of course this is having a negative impact. the stock is down 2.7% and it's currently the worst performer. over to you, jackie. meantime u.p.s. has agreed to by tnt for just over 5

billion euros. they've offered 9.5 euros a share. the board at tnt say they will unanimously approve the offer and say it's confident that it will get regulatory approval for the deal. and between news for u.s. taxpayers. the "wall street journal" reports that the u.s. treasury will announce a $25 billion profit from the mortgage bonds that the department purchased in 2008 and 2009. this is the largest profit the government has made from any of its programs related to the financial crisis. christine. well, north korea has lashed out at critics of its planned rocket launch next month. the rocket will only take a satellite into space, but the international community isn't buying. let's get the details. >> just two weeks after it agreed with washington to stop

uranium enrishmechment faciliti north korea is taking to the brink again. the move has been announced by the united nations and basically the rest of the world with even china voicing concern. yet digging in its heels calling the satellite a missile launch used for peaceful approaches and encroach upon its sovereignty, but many think it's a ploy to boo t boost the legitimacy of kim jong-un. japan is considering using missile enter septembintercepto. the launch is set to a place between april 12th and 16th, coinciding with the parliamentary elections here in seoul. back to you. >> thank you very much for that.

jackie. still to come on the show, china says it's all about economic reform, but investors aren't completely convinced. find out ywhy coming up next.

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china. real estate investors remain concerned over beijing's refusal to lift curbs, but encouraging domestic consumption. >> that's right, let's talk about your first point and we have data showing a pick up in february sales, but home prices actually fell 0.1% marking its fifth consecutive monthly decline. and home sales may rebound as more first time home buyers enter the market. while the market undergois change, so do other saeareas ofe economy. and at the economic forum, helped china cannot afford to delay top reforms.

he add that had boosting domestic consumption and demand it and pursuing structural reforms are beijing's top priority high school this year. christine lagarde at the same time is praises china's efforts, but says the imf stands on the chinese currency remains unchanged. the yuan is still undervalued and china must liberalize its foreign exchange are a geem. >> let's get more discussion on this particular topic with chief economist asia pacific at ihs global insights. good to have you with us. we hear them saying tough economic reforms needed. what structural reforms do you want to see to ensure that the process is actually continuing? >> it's important to rebalance the economy over the medium to long term. it can't happen overnight. but clearly there's an important

priority to increase the share of domestic consumption in gdp and the government is moving forward with reforms to try to boost incomes of factory workers in particular. they're encouraging rapid wages growth. obviously linked to productivity, not just labor costs. but also we've seen other steps such as reducing taxes and also efforts to increase social welfare in the latest budget. and that's important because helps increase consumption. >> the big risk a lot of people see is correcting property markets continues to decline pot fifth straight month. a lot of people are saying with a lot of wealth tied to the property sector, that could come back and bite domestic consumption. >> that's a key risk this year. we expect china will have a soft landing with growth of about 8.2% this year compared to 9% last year. and one of the key reasons is

this construction slowdown. we think it will be mitigated because although the government is trying to control speculative investment in the big cities and will keep tight lending curbs there, what they do want to do is encourage affordable housing and that's a program of 36 million low income housing over the five years starting last year. a lot of money that will go into that sector and it was a key budget priority in the latest budget to encourage affordable housing through lending by the state banks, as well. >> 7.5% is achievable this year. counseli do you think china could surprise us to the up side? >> our expectations are just over 8%, but not a huge difference in our view. i think the government may be a bit cautious in their view, but we do see quite a lot of know men tim still in the chinese economy. and exports are holding up

pretty well to other parts of the world because the u.s. economy is doing well, japan is rebounding about. >> do you agree with christine lagarde that the youan is undervalued? >> i think we're seeing a reduction at a significant pace. and our expectations are that the chinese trade surplus will decline over the next few years because of the growth p domestic consumption. and that will reduce that concern about undervaluation. so i don't think it's as big an issue as it was several years ago. >> we'll leave it will. thank you very much for your thoughts today. good having you on the show. that's it for me, i'm off to talk to the word trade organization chief, he's in town. i'll bring you the details of that interview right here on "worldwide exchange." >> we look forward to that, christine. thanks very much. still to come on the show after

the short break, the portuguese finance minister is on a clarm offensive where he's due to meet bernanke and geithner.

welcome to the so he. headlines this morning, here in the united states, apple is set to announce hair plan for the estimated $98 billion in cash that the company has on hand. >> and early estimates talk of a $2.5 billion payout. >> investors question beijing's next policy moves after the imf rules out a china hard landing despite falling property prices. nice to have you here on "worldwide exchange" with us. if you're just joining us, let's take a look at u.s. futures. it does look like it will be a lower open if the markets were to open now, the dow would be lower by 22 1/2, nasdaq by one and change and the s&p 500 lower

by just a little bit more than three points. meantime the u.s. equity market finished mixed on friday, although we did see some impressive weekly gains and important to note that the dow and s&p logged their best week since last december. in terms of the best performer, energy, materials, financials no surprise there. >> as you may have guessed, european markets are trading a little lower today, but the strong gains that we've seen recently, the markets closed on friday, many of these european indexes are looking at right now with red arrows had the highest closing levels since eight months or so ago depending which index you're looking at. so put it about in the context of the last few months, strong performances year to indicadate. dax down by nearly half a percent. ftse maybe losing just a

fraction today. so some decline, but fairly modest. an auction will be held today to determine how much holders of greek credit swaps will be received. the auction expected to settle as much as $3.2 billion. the head of the international institute of says reforms are the key to greece's recovery. he was asked when he's confident private creditors holding greek debt will unanimously take place. >> i'm not confident that it will be 100%. i think this is a complicated question because some hedge funds have actually purchased controlling blocks in some of these issues. and because it's not possible to aggregate them for collective

action clause purposes. i think we will get solid participation, but i wouldn't be surprised at a few hold outs. >> you you called on pl city makers to postpone extra capital workers. how do you balance fiscal austerity and economic growth? >> that's the challenge that we have and it's not only that balance, but it's balancing regulatory reform, goals of stability versus providing credit to support economic recovery. right now there is such a focus on a more stable financial system that the deleveraging pressures on financial institutions in europe and the u.s. is very powerful especially in europe. unless the regulators rebalance things a little bit, it's going to be difficult to revive growth and right now they're too much focused on short term austerity. >> what more do chinese banks need to do in hair bid to

internationalize and how far along are they some. >> they're well advanced. they're improving risk management, improving auditing standards, strengthening their business models. and gradually becoming competitive globally. gradually the leadership in china needs to develop a plan where they can separate party control of the economy and the operation of the banking system. this plan is still at an embryonic stage and i think they need to move board so that the banks can be competitive on a market basis. >> joining us now is a marketing consultant and j.j. burns of course still with us. we heard him talking about some of the crucial compromises i guess that governments and markets have to make right now. he particularly pointed to regulator reform on the one hand versus provision of adequate

credit for recovery on the other. do you think we're getting that right? >> i think we're playing a little bit with fire and it's definitely on the brink. if you look at the latest figures on the ecb, there's just 25% of institutions had toughened their lending standards, which hardly speaks to an efficient transmission of all this money that the central banks have provided. >> so do you believe that the central banks need to push this money out in to the real economy right now to get this recovery going or are we just in a transition mode where it's okay for banks to kind of keep this until they are more assured? >> i think the ecb, the next accept if you like down the road, which the bundesbank would speak out strongly against would be purchase of let's say corporate bonds or other assets in the economy to try to get money out of the banks into the real economy. that isn't going to happen.

the one thing that they could possibly do is reduce the deposit rate from a quarter of a percent to zero let's say. they have concerns about the efficient operation, the money market, if rates are actually zero. i'm not sure there is a grail great deal the ecb can do. it's now really in a sit back and let's see what happens mode. they feel they've done the absolute most they can. draghi has pushed relations with the bundesbank to the limit of what has been done already. i can't see much more action there at all. >> j.j. >> hi, nick. i have a quick question for you on if papademos and the greek ministers say that 70% to 80% of the average people in greece want to stay in the euro and that they are willing to go through especially al reforms, gutting reform misorder for them to say in the euro, how is it, what plan do you think needs to be done where, number one,

greece could actually say in the euro beyond 2015, because the markets don't believe it, the new bond is trading at nearly a higher or at the same values of where the old greek default was at, but you're talking about a population that the average age of retirement is far less than where it probably needs to go and more people have to get jobs and work longer. >> yeah, i guess i'd say search me. it seems in-liunlikely that gre would still be in the euro by 2015. i think this is a landscape of unending austerity and we can see the social tensions a rise even more so the coming months. the current pulse may suggest that, you may say papademos would say that, but i have to say over two, three year time horizon, that's such a big ask.

i'm fearful of success on that front. >> let's hold it there for a second. portugal will become the next greece by the end of the year, that's the view of chief executive of tpimco. el-erian said the first bailout would prove to be insufficient with the country needing more cash from the imf and the eu. finance anyone sistminister is h bernanke and geithner today and only. nick, what do you make of el-erian's comments sha? do you agree? >> i'd love to be less gloomy. i find it hard to disagree with that summation. we're in this warm glow of massive liquidity at the moment which may last for another few months and we may say the equity markets go up a bit, see ten year u.s. yields climbing

towards 2.5%. but sometime in the second half of the year, i think the unsustainability of the underlying problems will come to the fore again and portugal comes into question and spain. i saw a frightening figure the other day that the spanish con simple shon assumption of cement has fallen 32% from a year earlier and that gives you obviously by the state of the construction industry and still losses to be taken on property in spain, as well. >> because at the wouldn't have been doing a huge amount of building anyway. so if the respite is only temporary and the fundamental and sustainability will just come to the fore again, at what point does that stop happening? when are all the skeletons out of the closet? >> i think we'll see a meeting

of the cardinals. eventually when the problems come to the fore again, you may see hopefully a final meeting where we think what might solve the problem which is move to a proper miss cal union, the issue of euro bonds, those will be the final if you like nail in the coffin for the crisis. >> nick, we'll have to leave it there, but of course nick and j.j. will say with us. still to come, u.s. presidential hopeful mitt romney seizes on rising gas prices in a bid to win voters. but where are prices headed? we'll discuss it next. carfirmation. only hertz gives you a carfirmation. hey, this is challenger.

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introducing gold choice. the freedom you can only get from hertz to keep the car you reserved or simply choose another. and it's free. ya know, for whoever you are that day. it's just another way you'll be traveling at the speed of hertz. a pact a pact has been reached with the french oil company. it hopes to present its plan it is to the chinese government shortly. cnbc spoke to the ceo of total. while iran has dominated the oil headlines, he said will isn't the only region sending ripples through the markets. >> today it's not only them

having problems. security in a lot of other countries such as america, africa, which delays projects. at the end, the market forces are driven by fundamentals. and if you don't invest quickly, more, then we will be faced with a concern about not enough energy to cover the demand. >> let's get into this conversation with j.j. and nick. nick, let's start with you. as we just will heard from the ceo of total there, he believes that the fundamentals are such that oil will continue to rise if we don't get major

investment. that is pot what the global economy needs as we just talked about. >> i think there are two second order dangers that the world economy faces this year. which are oil prices and what happens to the chinese economy. the first order risk is what happens to euro. and they're all known unknowns. the first two, oil, you could have the geopolitical blow up. then you have the question that shale gas which is reducing the cost of natural gas in many parts of the world, certainly in the states you face environmental questions as to whether production will can be increased more. if the republicans win, it's more likely that it will do. if obama gets if this again, then less likely that we'll see an increase in production there. those concerns won't apply in

china i don't think. so there's a real -- it's one of the risks to the global economy makes me think the second half carries some minds for markets and for the economy. >> i agree it is a huge risk. and j.j., we were talking about this during the break. you were saying domestically in the united states, you don't think the high gas prices have impacted the consumer as much because they're seeing a little bit of a balance on the heating costs with the mild winter. tell me more about that. >> i always like to look at the guy on the street. the average person that owns an rv is putting it up for sale. is leasing it out. the average guy in the street is going to the pumps and whether say, oh, xwegee, if it costs mo. but from a budget area standpoint, they don't really feel the pinch because we're getting such unseasonably warm

weather in the united states, and certainly in the northeast that the average heating bill which would normally be a 20%, 30% more is being absorbed because of gas prices. but you're starting to see all leak in in to what's happening in emerging markets. you're also seeing it where companies like pepsi are coming out saying we're not going to see as big of an earnings increase. an more importantly, you're getting three times, worth repeating again, three times more profit warnings because of commodity prices coming into play in the coming months in to the earnings season. so i absolutely agree with nick. and more importantly, the geopolitical risks are compounding the problem even worse. we're just full of great news today. >> yeah. meantime, u.s. presidential hopeful mitt romney is tapping into voter angry over these gas prices. he said president obama's efforts are hurting americans and called on him to fire three energy officials over the rise

in prices. last night romney took a step closer to being becoming the republican nominee by winning the primary vote in puerto rico and of course, j.j., what do you make of the romney versus obama stance on energy? we were also saying it's a tough situation to be in, solutions will be difficult to find. >> yeah, it certainly had been. unfortunately, the republicans have kind of shot themselves in the foot politically. don't mean to get involved on the political discussion here. but let's face it, the more m missteps they make, it's another hums up for the obama administration. so an investor has to take a look at what's happening politically and can determine that right now, the favor is in the obama camp that they'll probably win re-election. if that's the case like nick was just saying, it's likely that gas prices, oil prices will at least stay the same and have more pressure to go up on the up side. so that plays a role in determining where your portfolio

is over the next one to three years. >> let's take a different tack on the presidential race. the indications about the u.s. economy look pretty positive so far. will things look a bit different after the presidential election some can we get a proper read what's going on in the u.s. economy in this very politically astute period? >> the real time bomb approaching is the fiscal challenges at the beginning of next year. right after the elections, there will be a lame duck congress for eight weeks let's say which will have eight weeks to cope with whether the bush tax cuts will be extended, the possible imposition of automatic spending cuts, adding up to several percent of gdp fiscal threat to the u.s. economy early part of

2013. that's a threat which i think people will begin to worry about in the real economy, hence reducing economic activity possibility in the second half, as well. >> nick, thank you very much. thanks for speaking to us today. jackie. coming up next on "worldwide exchange," apple is set to announce plans for its huge $98 billion cash pile. so can shareholders finally expect a dividend to pay out? more on that next. [ man ] predicting the future is hard.

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welcome back. let's take a quick look at the futures. does look like at this point now it will be a little bit of a mixed open about if the markets were to open now, the dow welcome back. let's take a quick look at the futures. does look like at this point now it will be a little bit of a mixed open about if the markets were to open now, the dow would be lower by 16 and change, the nasdaq just over the flat line and the s&p 500 low aer by near 3. and what's on the cal help dleh dear. the national association of housing index is due up, seen inching up to 30. we'll go earnings from adobe systems. and j.j., talking about the markets and the week ahead on wall strut,eet, a lot saying th jobless claims numbers in focus again. your thoughts. >> i think that's going to be coupled with the rising prices in commodities. the guidance that you're getting, which is not much guidance at all out of your s&p

500 companies. it really will make up for a pretty sloppy earnings season. and i think it this is just the beginning of it. >> and when we talk about things that immediate to recover quickly, your take on the housing market. >> i think that the housing market is being a bit ghosted by the fact that you have so much foreign influence coming in in buying, but i think that's also starting to discity pain bait you're starting to seat rising dollar and the euro starting to decline a little bit. so that's an interesting dichotomy that's happening. >> certainly something to watch for. >> it will be interesting in the next quarter where that will go. >> j.j., thank you so much. president of j.j. burns and company. and of course that wraps it up for today's show for me in the states here and for beccy. have a great day in terms of the markets. "squawk box" is up next.

today's top stories, what is apple going to do with all that cash? we'll find out when the company hosts a conference call at 9:00 a.m. eastern time. and we have a done deal this morning. u.p.s. buying tnt for $6.9 billion. markets on the move. wall street tries to continue its winning ways following a week when the key averages cross several significant benchmarks. it's monday, march 19th, 2012 and squawk begins right now. ♪ % good morning and welcome to "squawk box." i'mnd